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The week is over! I wish you all have a great weekend like the one I’m about to have. But it’s only Friday, so, aiming to inform you about some of the most popular news circling around this week and for you to have another subject to talk about when hanging friends, if you will, here’s our weekly summary of the news from outside Casa de Campo and around the country: This Week in the Dominican Republic.
This week the DNCD made a major catch by capturing the man heading the list of the most wanted drug lords from the eastern region of the Dominican Republic and premium cigar exportation generated millions in revenues. It’s been a great week…
Dominican Republic has more than 400,000 businesses
The National Statistics Office (ONE) carried out a survey of the nation’s businesses in the provinces of Peravia, La Romana and Espaillat as part of the National Business Registry. The survey was prepared by the office of Small Business (Pymes) at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce under deputy minister Ignacio Mendez and was funded by UNDP and the European Union. According to the survey the Dominican Republic has around 410,000 businesses, including both formal and informal businesses.
The initial results of the survey show that retail shops and stores account for more than 40% of the businesses across the first three provinces in the survey. In La Romana, firms involved in tourism were next, account for 11.4% of businesses surveyed. While in Peravia and Espaillat, beauty parlors and barber shops are second in importance, with 14.2% and 12.2%.
The results of the complete nationwide survey are expected to be available by the end of this year, says the ONE.
Cigar exports generate US$650 million in 2015
Director of the Dominican Tobacco Institute (Intabaco), Juan Francisco Caraballo, said that according to his report, the Dominican Republic is forecast to receive US$650MM from the export of premium cigars to the United States, Spain, France, Germany, China and Japan.
Caraballo spoke to reporters during the public destruction of more than 100,000 fake cigars confiscated in the tourist areas of Puerto Plata, Sosúa, Cabarete, and Samaná as well as Higüey, Bávaro and Punta Cana, and added that “the Dominican Republic continues to be the world’s leading cigar and tobacco exporter of premium cigars”.
Taiwan donates US$1.4MM for an Information Techonology Center
The Ministry of Foreign Relations (Mirex) announced the formation of a think tank involving 11 schools of architecture from the country to select a proposal for the design of a modern building for the Internet Technology and Communication Center.
The government of Taiwan has donated the building to house the center, as part of the framework for institutional strengthening of foreign ministries in Central American Integration System (SICA).
Agents capture Dominican “drug lord” on the loose since 2014
Today, Friday, July 17th, reputed drug lord, Gregory Vilorio Pérez A.K.A. Darío Gasolina, being sought since late 2014 on charges of smuggling 516 kilos of cocaine to the US via Puerto Rico, was captured by The National Drugs Control Agency (DNCD). Several teams arrested the accused together with two other men in a SUV on a road near Juanillo, Altagracia province (that’s the Eastern region where La Romana is located), after an investigation lasting several months.
The DNCD said Violrio headed the most important drug trafficking in the Dominican Republic’s east region. Adding that the detainee had over US$100,000 in cash in his pocket and nearly RD$1.4MM in a local bank account.
In a statement, the DNCD said Vilorio escaped arrest when agents seized of 516 kilos of cocaine in the boat “Marian II” reportedly headed to Puerto Rico, and arrested Colombian Diego Osorio and Dominicans Toribio Jimenez and Bienvenido Gums Perez (Busonuco).